Another point you could consider is this: the terms "early" or "Late" can be used to refer not necessarily to when you so but to how long it takes for the plant to mature. Really fast earlies take 75 days; normal earlies 90, so there is absolutely no reason why you should not sow...

I thoink Plum,pudding's point is that there isn't much comfrey growth by April to enable you to cut leaves, let them wilt and then put them in the potato trench. I suggest cutting a lot in the autumn and bagging it, so that you do have a special stock for using in this way. I use rhubarb leaves inst...

I've put in my garlic, broad beans and mange-tout peas. I've manured the beds where I'll grow tomatoes and beans next year. I've also manured some of the beds allocated for spuds, but I cand do all of them because there are still celeriac, parsnips, salsify and late carrots there. I've sown green ma...

Here in bedford, where I was advised years ago to pretend we lived in the north for earliest planting dates, I try to warm up the soil with clear polythene cloches and then plant the earliest varieties at the beginning of March and cover them with fleece. In a good year I get spuds mid-May. In Cornw...

I split my wormery into two. Whereas both make good potting compost, the original one with the built-in tap gets a lot of liquid but the other one, formed simply by taking one of the original boxes and putting it on top of a suitable plastic box which I found, with a brick to keep it out of the liqu...

Yes, NB, and the tops you cut off contain the nutrients which the roots have brought up. That's why I try to keep the bindweed I dig up, which I soak to death and then use the liquid as a feed. With luck I get some of the nutrients from deep down. But I don't grow bindweed as a green manure, in case...

Sorry, PP, I didn't mean to rubbish your wish to grow straight parsnips. I prefer mine that way. The twisted ones I have to cut up first to clean them.

Another point is that I probably dig them up too late, when they are bigger than they need be.

Brain-picking is what this forum is all about and the harvest goes on all the year round. I have sown alfalfa in spring, but I am sure an early autumn sowing would do just as well. The roots go deep, as you say, and when I dig it in I often leave some roots , which regrow. It doesn't ,matter if the ...

My own instinct would be to double-dig this autumn and incorporate lots of manure/compost/leafmould as you see fit. You can then subsequently adopt a no-dig policy, having seen to your lower levels. On no-dig beds be sure to rotate with a green manure such as alfalfa, which grows its roots deep and ...

Sorry - a PS. Now that I have looked at the topic that was locked, I must say I am surprised, for reasons given by Alan. Perhaps the original idea of "General chatter" was to have a forum for discussing personal issues, such as disability access to concert halls or catering at garden centr...

I can't remember exactly what happened on the thread that was pulled, but I seem to recall that the problem wasn't the heaviness of the topic or the political nature of the discussion, but the fact that it became PERSONALLY oppositional. We should surely be able to voice strongly-held opinions but w...

Catherine, you are not alone. Long live the cybernetically-challenged!

I don't know anything about the science of this, Snooky, but I believe the technology of suppressing emissions is sufficiently advanced to enable companies to eliminate almost all nauseating or damaging emissions from incineration. The actual incinerated stuff itself, on the other hand, could be cle...

Sorry to put a dampener on this, but I don't see the point of growing parsnips for showing if this means growing the thing with an enormously long tapering tail. The tail is so thin that you are going to a great deal of trouble to grow something of little or no consumable bulk. I don't see the point...

The vast increase in population is the result of far greater longevity, which in turn has come from advances in medicine, rather than a more varied diet. Vitamin and other substitutes have also helped. It is true that the world at large needs to reduce its population radically, but the implications ...